The arrival of a Starbucks, a brew-pub, a Trader Joe's grocery store or the installation of a farmers market all have been identified as metrics indicating that a neighborhood "has arrived". Add to this list beer gardens, sidewalk eating, food halls, food markets, food trucks and urban farms and one has a complete list of popular benchmarks for urban revitalization and gentrification;  all have to do to with food and drink!

New Crepe vendor at the Mt Vernon MarketPlace in Baltimore (photo ArchPlan)

If we experience our cities today no longer a smoggy foul stinking place in which residents toil day and night in factories, do laundry or cook meals for large families on wood burning stoves but as places where people frolic, attend festivals and hang out under sunbrellas or mobile heaters (depending on the season) imbibing or sort through elaborately stacked tiny food towers on large plates, it is because, yes, life has changed.

An ever growing number of people not only eat-out but also eat outside, in streets, in beer gardens and on rooftop patios. This trend has had a profound impact on the face of cities for some years now. Even duller places have taken on a tiny bit of the flair of the boulevards of Paris or the avenues of Barcelona. European urban flair